The first episode of Fuji TV's Wednesday 10pm drama "If This World Were a Stage, Where Would the Dressing Room Be?" (Wednesdays at 10pm, first episode extended by 30 minutes), written by Koki Mitani and starring Masaki Suda, aired on October 1st. In the episode, there is a scene in which Kube (Suda), an aspiring director who was expelled from a theater company, gets lost in the suspicious shopping district "Hachibunzaka" and meets Asao (Sato Hiroki), the son of Monet (Tasuku Sato), a dancer at WS Theater, which became a hot topic on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
In the first episode, in the fall of 1984, Hisabe, an aspiring director who admires Yukio Ninagawa, finds himself at a loss. He has been expelled from his theater company for being too tyrannical.
Wandering aimlessly, Kube stumbles into a suspicious shopping arcade. The shopping street, lit by the neon lights of strip clubs, is called "Hachibunzaka." It's called Hachibunzaka because it's eight minutes from Shibuya Station, and there's a sign inscribed on the arcade that reads, "Pray speak what has happened."
Afterwards, Kube, who was sitting in front of Hachibun Shrine, drowning in grief, caught sight of a boy named Asao, who was in the shadows, carrying a school bag and playing a whistle...and so the story unfolds.
When Asao sees him, Hisabe leaves the shrine, drawing a blank fortune slip and tying it to a nearby tree before leaving. Later, at Hachibun Shrine, Izanagi Duncan (Koike Eiko), the flagship dancer who has quietly quit WS Theater and is heading to Okinawa with a male staff member, arrives. When Izanagi Duncan spots Asao and begs him not to tell anyone that she saw us, Asao sadly asks, "Are you going somewhere?"
On social media, many people were paying attention to Asao, as Ozora played the role of a lion in the drama series "Light of My Lion" (TBS), which will be broadcast in 2024. Comments such as "Is Asao a lion?", "Asao is so cute", "I was so excited when I saw the child actor playing Lion", "Even the child actors are amazing", "The thing that got me most excited was when Lion appeared", "Asao is so cute I want to keep watching just to see Asao", and "He's such a cute kid" were posted and became a hot topic.
